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December 29, 2005
New Year Resolutions
It's that time of year when everyone looks back on the ending year and mutters a few vows to do better in the coming one. I'd like to make a few suggestions for board members to consider as "Resolutions for 2006". All right, everyone raise their right hand and state: "In 2006, I resolve.....
- To try and remember, before every meeting, that I was elected to serve. That's why the term "serve as a board member".
- To try and communicate with my neighbors more frequently, more openly, and with greater detail. Remember, its when things are done in the dark that people get suspicious and defensive.
- To keep calm, cool and collected, when an owner challenges a decision or suggests something else. It isn't always an attack. Instead of "circling the wagons" when someone questions me, invite them to join you at the campfire to talk about it.
- To understand that if it took the board some time and effort to understand a situation and to come to an agreement on how to handle it, it may take the owners some time to reach the same point (and they may need to have the same information I did)
- To take a look at what I/we like or dislike about the service people working with our association, and then to sit down with them and review it. Re-inforce the good and correct the bad. Don't wait until contract renewal to say we're unhappy.
- To personally meet as many of my neighbors as I can. It's hard "to serve" if you don't know the people you represent.
- To review all of the basic correspondence sent to owners by the board, including notices, violation letters, and late notices, to see if they are the kinds of letters I would want to receive.
- To respond, whenever I hear the words "set a bad precedent", with the following: "An exception is not a bad precedent, done right - it can be just an exception".
- When faced with making a decision on a potentially controversial issue, to sit back and ask myself, "Does this make sense?"
- To take a walk around the association, at least once a week, with a smile on my face, because I'm helping to make this a great place to live.
- and last, I resolve to try and keep these resolutions a little bit longer than I usually keep my personal ones.
Happy New Year and a special thanks to all of the volunteers out there who work so hard to make your association something great.
Posted by joewest at 10:46 AM
December 15, 2005
The positive is becoming a negative
I ran across the following paragraph in an article from a California newspaper: "Officials at Barratt American, developer of Fanita Ranch, were concerned that a recycled-water system would have required a homeowners association to run it, giving control of landscaping and irrigation to the association instead of the homeowners. Barratt officials were concerned that setting up a homeowners association would hurt the marketability of their homes, the staff report said."
Taking care of lawns used to be one of the reasons to have an association. This article is talking about a 1,300 home development, in California, and without an association. I didn't think that was allowed.
Think about it, "..setting up a homeowners association would hurt the marketability..". I guess when most of the news that's printed about HOA's is negative, the statement makes sense. The more serious question is whether it's true, or becoming true?
Posted by joewest at 10:30 AM
December 14, 2005
This week's gone to the dogs
A surprising number of news stories this week centered around community associations and pets. Remember "pets" is the first of the three "p's" of association problems - pets, parking and people. Some of the stories were just sad - a blind woman cited by here association because she can't always "see" where to clean up after her guide dog - certainly shows associations in a good light. Another association is fining a woman $25 every time she walks her dog through the condo lobby rather than carrying it. The lady is 61, has a back injury and walks with a cane. You can guess how that story went. And, we have another story about "companion" pets.
Richard Ekimoto, in his Hawaii Condo Law blog, wrote two articles about companion pets that are worth reading. Here's the links:
Posted by joewest at 10:24 PM
December 4, 2005
I can do whatever I want!
A local HOA made the national news the other day when an owner received a letter telling him to take down a nativity scene in their front yard. What followed is predictable:
- An owner in an HOA put up a large, lit nativity scene in their front yard.
- Another owner complained and the manager sent a letter telling them to remove it, citing a rule prohbiting outdoor statues, art or lawn ornaments
- The owner said "No way" and complained and called the media
- The owner stated he never signed any documents about deed restrictions, so they obviuously didn't apply to him.
- The owner's church claimed religious persecution
- A local legal group that specializes in defending conservative Christian causes jumped in threatening all sorts of legal action.
- It made the front page of one of the major news dailies and was its lead editorial, and was written about by one of the leading national columnists in the other daily newspaper.
- The association, still developer-controlled, caved, stating that it has "misinterpreted the rule", that it only prohibited "permanent structures". The manager "fell on the sword".
- The owner and the media claim victory for religion and the American way of life.
- a local syndicated columnist, that I happen to like, wrote the following:
"But the story brings to light a larger issue about what rights neighbors have to dictate how you keep your property.
I am going to anger every homeowners association president here, but I have to say I never liked those things. To me, they often end up being run by people with too much time on their hands and too big a sense of their own power.
I am not against the idea of a neighborhood chipping in for, say, snow plowing or neighborhood watches or even a block party. It's when these groups turn into the Property Value Police that I get worried.
Because let's face it. When a neighbor complains about another neighbor's paint color or awnings or front-lawn display, it usually has to do with one thing: the value of his own home. Everyone is so crazed that his or her "property value" might go down. "You're affecting my property value!" We have come to view making a fortune off our real estate as some unalienable right.
Besides, what these worried homeowners associations often overlook is this: The neighbors paid for their house, too. They worked hard. They wrote the checks. And part of what they get for owning the house -- not leasing, not renting, but owning -- is the right to determine how it looks and how they want to live in it.
I'm not talking about running a crack house in a cul-de-sac. I'm not talking about leaving broken windows or burned-out porches.
But not liking a paint color or a building material or a religious symbol is your problem. Not theirs."
A few thoughts:
I hope that the developer likes running that association. I can't imagine any homeowner ever wanting to sit on that board, knowing that they will take it in the ear whenever an owner doesn't get whatever they want.
The media still doesn't understand what a community association is. They write about it as if it is some monolithic entity separate from the owners. The fact that it is the owners seems to always escape them, (as it often escapes many of the owners).
I think we need a national community association referendum on "hot-button" issues, i.e. patriotic, religious and political displays, (or whatever is hot in your area) and just come up with some basic policies that can be shared, like "Do whatever you want, we're getting tired of getting beaten up for doing what we were elected to do and what the law requires us to do - enforcement of the rules you agreed to." At this point I'm not really sure how facetious I'm being. I do know that I'm getting tired of reading the stories.
Posted by joewest at 3:32 PM